In recent times, nanomaterials have been applied in the construction and maintenance of the worldÅLs cultural heritage with the aim of improving the consolidation and protection treatments of damaged stone. These nanomaterials include important advantages that could solve many problems found in the traditional interventions. The present paper aims to carry out a review of the state of art on the application of nanotechnology to the conservation and restoration of the stony cultural heritage. We highlight the different types of nanoparticles currently used to produce conservation treatments with enhanced material properties and novel functionalities.

Controlled magnesium hydroxide particles were successfully synthesized via a simple hydrothermal method. The influence of temperature and reaction time on the hydrothermal synthesis of Mg(OH)2 was studied. The results provide new parameters to control the morphologies, particle sizes, agglomeration level and crystallographic structures of the brucite nanosized. The physic–chemical properties of synthesized Mg(OH)2 nanoparticles have been characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) combined with selected area electron diffraction (SAED), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) and thermogravimetry/ differential scanning calorimetry (TG/DSC). It has been shown that the prolongation of reaction time improves the crystalline degree of magnesium hydroxide particles. It was also possible to detect a relevant increase in the degree of crystallinity and a faster crystal growth with defined hexagonal morphologies in the samples obtained at higher temperature. Our results show that this simple hydrothermal route is highly interesting for the large scale production of these nanomaterials